Sensenbrenner also said he wanted to call Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller to testify about their justification for the unprecedented raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, the target of a bribery investigation.

Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, said at a hearing on the raid that his bill could avoid a repeat of last week’s standoff between congressional leaders and the Bush administration after the search of Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office.

“We want to make sure that when the next congressman is investigated for illegal activity that the procedure done by the Justice Department is right,” Sensenbrenner said.

With the DOJ story about a Congressman who tried to hide behind his Imperial Congressional Seat for 8 months avoiding subpoena’s from a Federal Court:

The Justice Department said if Jefferson’s position were upheld it “would fundamentally subvert the well-established proposition that the clause does not confer a general immunity on members of Congress from the usual criminal procedures.”

In a 33-page court filing, the government said it took into account “the sensitive issues at stake” and used special procedures to ensure that no material related to legislative acts gathered from the search inadvertently fell into the hands of the prosecution team investigating Jefferson’s alleged criminal activity.

“The government does not seek to obtain — and indeed has gone to great lengths to avoid obtaining — any information from Rep. Jefferson that is actually covered by the speech or debate clause,” the court paper said.

The FBI said it used a screened-off “filter team,” which affords Jefferson an opportunity to examine the seized materials and claim a privilege on the documents before any of the papers come into the possession of the prosecutors in the case. The filter team will return to Jefferson all original documents that either the team or the court determine are “privileged.”

Somebody needs to tell Senseless to sit down and shut up.Â If I have to live under the laws of this land so does he and is power hungry, money grubbing, sitting on their backsides waiting for the next poll to come out, jetsetting with the rich to make deals, hiding from all the serious issues, overpayed friends in Congress.

The Reps are a waste of time now.Â The only time they get backbone is when they vote pay raises in the dead of night and wail because the laws are offensive to their innate superiority.Â I suggest we forget about deporting immigrants making a living and we deport this Congress for being just plain dangerous to America.

6 Responses to “Republicans Committing Political Suicide”

Yeah, he needs to be going the other way on this issue. This is sure making the hairs on my neck stand up. Something tells me the Democrats somehow have the Republicans by the short hairs on something. Looks like some kind of political blackmail. That’s the only way I can make any sense out of this. We (meaning the Republicans) should be beating the donks over the head with this.

At least Bill Frist had it right, he said it was all done correctly and no one was above the law. I wish the Repubs in the House would shut up. The only thing I can think of is that they want a lot of headlines because it is a Dem that is in the crosshairs. But if they don’t shut up, it’s the Repubs that will be. Even when you just read the constitution, it says they aren’t excluded if it is a felony.

pecifically, at the start of the search, Jefferson was seated at a table in the kitchen. The agent saw him looking at several pieces of paper laid on the table. Jefferson then asked the agents if he could take a look at a 19-page subpoena that had been served on him earlier in the day. The FBI agreed and brought him a copy of the subpoena. According to the agent, Jefferson (when he obviously thought no one was looking), put the subpoena on top of some of the documents he had been looking at earlier, and then placed the whole stack under his elbow.

Subsequently, once Jefferson saw that the agents were finished searching the living room area, including a blue bag that was in the living room, Jefferson asked if he could move to the living room from the kitchen. When the FBI said OK, Jefferson proceeded to take the stack with him and stash it in the blue bag.

The agent who was observing all this then confronted him. According to the agent, Jefferson insisted that the only thing he had placed in the bag was the subpoena. The agent then demanded that the bag be emptied. Jefferson finally complied, careful to place the subpoena on top. But sure enough, under the subpoena, the agent found the documents Jefferson had been looking at while he was sitting at the kitchen table. They had been faxâ€™d to Jefferson that very day by a man named B.K. Son. The agent pointed out to Jefferson (as if he needed reminding!) that the search warrant being executed specifically called for all communications between Jefferson and Mr. B. K. Son. The faxâ€™d documents were thus seized from Jefferson and preserved as evidence.

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and then Wuestec , you find Vernon Jackson and Jefferson’s daughter and even a Kennedy